Copying a Pattern, a Guarantee of Sale

Published: Jul 17, 2018

By Roya Fathollahzadeh

One cannot believe that the director of the “Centipede” is the same Abolhassan Davoody that directed the films “Birthplace” and “Crazy Rook”. Because even if those film had something to say with their form and content, the only thing “Centipede” has to say is that its director has tried to make a film that by copying the patterns of high selling films in Iran is able to reach the top spot at Iran box office. In the past few years, combining different elements such as the genre of comedy, celebrity appearances and romantic themes and the use of nostalgia, has had a great effect on the films’ sales in Iran. Just a few months before we witness that Mehran Ahmadi use this pattern with his first film “Confiscation” and was able to become the highest grossing film during the Nowruz screenings.

If we want to look at the nature of Iran’s cinema from the inside, the same way that “Hoshang Kavoosy” (a critic during the 40s) coined the phrase “Farsi Film” as a way to describe popular films of those years, now it is necessary to create a new phrase to describe this new popular cinematic trend. This new and open dialogue description in this direction can be like anti-dialogue so that in the future such a trend which is showier, but empty does not become a permanent element of Iran’s cinema.

The film “Centipede” is one of those comedy films which has benefited from the use of pattern elements in achieving high box office sales in Iran. This film is the story of two small-time thieves (played by Reza Attaran and Javad Ezati) one of which has lost his leg many years ago and tries to make money by using different tricks. “Centipede” is a new copy of comedy films such as “No Men Allowed” (Rambod Javan), “I Feel Sleepy” (Reza Attaran), “Sperm Whale” and “Sperm Whale, Roya’s Selection” (Saman Moghadam). The interesting point is that in all these films Reza Attaran and Vishka Asayesh have played a role. In all these films, Attaran plays the role of a young man from the lower class of the society who falls for a young woman from a rich family and even with his funny naivety, he is able to design clever plans in order to reach for his love. Vishka Asayesh, on the other hand, has always played the role of a powerful, strict and unchanging woman in these films. In “Centipede” the two characters of naïve man and powerful and strict woman is the main theme of the story. But this time instead of “Asayesh” another actor (Sarah Bahrami) plays the role of the woman. And of course, the important weakness of this movie is this change. Because Bahrami unlike her perfect and effective action in the role of an addict in the film “Woodpecker” has not been able to pull off this comedy role. The other weak point in acting and characterizations is the acting of “Javad Ezati” which is not much different from the characterization and behavior as the roles he has played in “Oxidants” and “Side Mirror”. In “Centipede” the chase scenes have an amateurish look and also the stage and clothes design are not faithful to any specific era unlike the film “Sperm Whale” which has brought the sixties era to the screen very clearly.

Nevertheless, this film was able to break the box office record for the premier in Iran and once again showed that the use of familiar patterns can still be the guarantee for the box office success of a film. Meanwhile, the interesting point is that the presence of great actors such as Attaran can have such an effect on the story of the film and the strategy of the director in such a way that it seems they are in the service of Attaran so that he can once again conquer the hearts of the everyday cinema viewers.